iWatch

[clonmult]

ZesPak said:

clonmult said:

Shame it doesn't do sleep tracking, as that would also give you useful information about resting heart rate - which can be invaluable for some training. But then it is a v1 product.

Wouldn't that be just software? So an app or similar? Problem will be battery life for that, if you're going to track your sports and your sleep, when are you charging it?

It probably is just software, but dictated by battery life. There's always a good chance that a future update will improve battery life and enable sleep tracking. Sleep tracking and resting heart rate has been a handy part of the FitBit Charge HR - it gives me a clear indication when I've been overtraining.

silentbrown said:

clonmult said:

It should be relatively accurate when cycling as long as you aren't one for regularly standing up and making major use of your arms.

For cycling you'd be using the phone's GPS as the watch doesn't have one. It's basically an HRM + display at that point. And if you try mounting it to the handlebars it won't work as an HRM.

You misunderstand; If you're a big hill climber, standing on the pedals, making use of your entire body, the HRM on the Apple Watch won't be reliable. It isn't a show stopper, just be aware of potentially unreliable results.

[audi321]

So how is the battery life (for those who have one already)

[LotusMartin]

little point in sleep tracking since you'll need to charge it overnight?

[Tycho]

LotusMartin said:

little point in sleep tracking since you'll need to charge it overnight?

I thought that about my Smartwatch 3 but it charges in about 3/4 hour so I put it on charge when in the car commuting.

[survivalist]

Leithen said:

Richyboy said:

So this is not the groundbreaking device I thought it would be. Never thought I would think this as an apple fanboy but the microsoft band thing seems like a much better option functionality wise.

Far too early to tell IMO. Will either gain a substantial number of users? What will developers dream up? Battery tech appears to be the limiting factor. Perhaps Apple have released Version 1 too soon, or perhaps establishing a user base and iterating is the clever move.

I suspect it's the latter. If Apple can shift enough of them then it'll become a virtuous circle where more and more app developers will start writing apps for the watch/phone combination. IMHO this is where Microsoft have struggled and why Apple have been successful in the Tablet market. While there are undoubtedly downsides to the Apple approach, their rigid development rules and policing of the App Store ensure a consistent experience.

The potential for a watch/band just in terms of a wearable sensor is huge given the right applications. It may be tech for techs sake, but a lot of stuff starts that way and eventually becomes part of everyday life.

[DeuxCentCinq]

ZesPak said:

Anyone here who's been using it for a week? How does it compare to the loads of existing smart watches?

I’ve had mine for nearly a week now and am liking it. I’m a serial collector of watches, so I don’t wear a smartwatch every day, but I’ve had a Pebble since November which I really liked, I’ve found the Apple Watch to be a definite improvement. It’s an entirely different experience to be honest. The Pebble is a bit ugly imo, but I loved the app support, the battery life (I get around 4-5 days out of a charge, depending on usage) and the ease of use of the interface with the big buttons.
What I didn’t like on the Pebble was the blocky screen (hard to read a map, for instance on there) and the missing features – you can control music, but not the volume, for instance. Having slated the blocky screen, I liked that it was e-ink, so was readable in bright sun and didn’t drain the battery despite being always on.

So, the Apple Watch. Beautiful colour screen. I’ve got the 42mm, and wouldn’t like to try touch on a smaller screen. The green sport band is, well, lurid. It matches my bike, but I’ve got a black one and a Milanese Loop on order too. I’ve also retroactively added AppleCare to it as I’m afraid I’m going to bang it on something – it sits quite high on the wrist with a prominent crown, and I’m clumsy.
Notifications work really well, the vibration is not as loud as the Pebble but easier to feel. When you then look at the watch, there’s a neat little animated sequence where it opens the message or appointment and displays it for you. App-wise, Twitter is good, there’s a couple of decent games and being able to pay for coffee with it is a bit of a novelty. My favourite is probably the remote control for the phone camera though. Means you can prop your phone up on something, then take a picture without having to scramble back for a timer. It shows the viewfinder display on the watch so you can be sure you’re in the frame too, which is nice.

LotusMartin said:

little point in sleep tracking since you'll need to charge it overnight?

From a fitness tracker point of view, I’ve had a Jawbone UP (the original one, not the 24) for ages. Not quite ready to ditch that yet as it has a ten day battery life from one 40 minute charge, and is unobtrusive when sleeping to track my sleep. Why I track my sleep I have no idea. Because I can, I guess. It does little to change my sleeping habits. I’m not exactly going to phone into to work to say “sorry, I’m going to be late in today, my watch says I’ve not had enough sleep” am I?
I compared it to my Wahoo TICKR HRM chest strap during 1.5hrs cycling and 1 hr of Badminton on Wednesday, and the Watch was within 5bpm of the average on both activities. I was happy with that.
While cycling it can also give turn by turn directions, with audio prompts if you have a Bluetooth earpiece, and haptic feedback on your wrist. My wife called to ask how close I was to home, I took the call easily and she said there was very little background noise despite doing 20mph ish on a busy road at the time.

audi321 said:

So how is the battery life (for those who have one already)

I usually charge overnight, so it did all of Wednesday (including the activities mentioned above), then sat on my bedside table on an unplugged charger last night (oops) so didn’t pick up a charge. It went into power saving mode (watchface only) at 10% battery during lunch, then a half hour charge brought that back up to 70%. The folding plug is a work of genius btw. I notice they’re £25 to buy on their own!

Composite Guru said:

I can now see why they stopped making the touchscreen iPod Nano. Its essentially the same thing but cost a lot less than the iwatch. You just needed to to buy the additional strap for it.

This statement could not be more wrong. I’ve had a Nano 6 with a couple of different straps to turn it into a watch since it came out. As a watch, the Nano was rubbish. You had to press a button for it to illuminate the face. You had to have headphones plugged in to listen to music from it. It had no fitness/HRM features. You couldn’t load apps onto it. There was no zoom. Scrolling with your finger meant you obscured the display. The Watch is superior in every way. I still love the Nano 6, probably the music player I use most other than my iPhone (I own 15 different iPods, as well as numerous other brands – the iRiver U10 was a firm favourite until my PC stopped supporting it) but it was not a good watch. The straps were more of a gimmick, really.

So, tl;dr: Tech & watch fan who sometimes likes Apple products (the new Macbook is bks, btw. Just don’t.) likes the Apple Watch. I would say if you don’t want a smartwatch, and can’t see the benefit in one – as I said, I don’t wear one every day – then this is unlikely to sway you. It is a very, very good smartwatch though, if you like that sort of thing, and have an iPhone already. I have a pre-order in for the new Pebble Time Steel, and am considering cancelling it as this is just so much better, I can’t see myself going back to a non-touchscreen, despite the battery limitations.

[IIIRestorerIII]

So anyone else waiting for their watch yet. Ordered a 42mm Stainless Steel with black band on 25th April and then the 42mm black aluminium with black band on the 30th. Both still showing as June. Looks like the 38mm are getting out within a few days though.

[Durzel]

Richyboy said:

So this is not the groundbreaking device I thought it would be. Never thought I would think this as an apple fanboy but the microsoft band thing seems like a much better option functionality wise.

As an self-confessed Apple fanboy surely you knew already that 1st generation Apple stuff is basically for the real diehard "Apple everything" folk?

The strength of the early generation Apple stuff in my opinion isn't so much what it is or how well it works, but what knock on effect it has on the market. I skipped the original Apple iPhone but it's pretty clear even now that it was the genesis for smartphones as a whole today. I'm sure someone will probably point out something that came out just before it also had a big screen, or whatever, but Apple popularised it - like they tend to do with their market capitalisation. Like tablets, tablets existed pre-iPad, but now they're ubiquitous. I say that as someone who most definitely isn't an Apple fanboy: I own an iMac and an Android phone.

So yeah, the iWatch will sell a lot of units regardless of how effective it is at being a smartwatch (the jury is still out in my mind on how much of a killer thing it is whilst you still need to carry your phone with you to do the grunt work). What it will do though is drive Apple's competitors to up their game, and by extension Apple themselves. iWatch S or whatever comes out next is more likely to be the one that "normal" consumers would get the most benefit from. The current one, not so much - unless you're happy to basically be financing the "proper" version.

[survivalist]

Quick update having used it daily for 2 weeks.

While it has been interesting, I've not been bowled over by the majority of the available apps (although I realise it's early days on that front) and the novelty of speaking into your wrist soon wears off. I also don't like the rubber strap, which is the only option with the sport model.

As a result I've decided to return it to apple. Maybe in a few months time the app ecosystem will have improved and third party metal straps will be available and I'll have another try.

Did think about selling it on eBay as they seem to be going for a fair bit over list price, but the number of idiots and scammers on eBay these days puts me off.

[DeuxCentCinq]

survivalist said:

Quick update having used it daily for 2 weeks.

While it has been interesting, I've not been bowled over by the majority of the available apps (although I realise it's early days on that front) and the novelty of speaking into your wrist soon wears off. I also don't like the rubber strap, which is the only option with the sport model.

As a result I've decided to return it to apple. Maybe in a few months time the app ecosystem will have improved and third party metal straps will be available and I'll have another try.

Did think about selling it on eBay as they seem to be going for a fair bit over list price, but the number of idiots and scammers on eBay these days puts me off.

Er, you do know you can buy any of the other straps or bracelets and they will fit the Sport too?

[survivalist]

DeuxCentCinq said:

survivalist said:

Quick update having used it daily for 2 weeks.

While it has been interesting, I've not been bowled over by the majority of the available apps (although I realise it's early days on that front) and the novelty of speaking into your wrist soon wears off. I also don't like the rubber strap, which is the only option with the sport model.

As a result I've decided to return it to apple. Maybe in a few months time the app ecosystem will have improved and third party metal straps will be available and I'll have another try.

Did think about selling it on eBay as they seem to be going for a fair bit over list price, but the number of idiots and scammers on eBay these days puts me off.

Er, you do know you can buy any of the other straps or bracelets and they will fit the Sport too?

Yep, but the only one I like is the link bracelet which is north of £300. If I was going to go down that route I'd get the Steel/Sapphire watch as well as the cost of the watch bodies is pretty similar. I may still do this if the apps improve. As it stands though the strap is just one of the factors in returning the watch.

[Bungleaio]

I cancelled my order today. My iPhone 5 battery is really showing it's age and not lasting all that well anymore. I think having it connected to the watch via bluetooth will push it over the edge.

I will look at it again when I've got a 6s.

[off_again]

Interesting comments - took a look at one in the local Apple store the other day and it looked great, felt expensive and was fairly impressed. But not enough to throw the thick end of $500+ on one. I live in the US, but also in CA, so thats $350+ 10% sales tax and to be honest that cheap rubber strap is nasty, so add another $100 for a nicer strap - suddenly this is getting expensive!

I really wanted something to track my sleep and activity so I went for a Pebble Steel. Actually bought a Pebble AND a Jawbone UP2 for the wife for less than $400, so a bit of a deal there. I must admit that I am impressed with the Pebble. Its far from perfect, but pretty cheap and easy to use. It does what I need at a decent price and looks pretty good. I think the new Pebble Time will be good, but the Apple Watch has a FAR superior screen though, so depends on what you want. At the moment, I don't see the value for spending much more, at the moment. I fully expect to see more apps, more options and better straps soon. When that happens, lets see, but maybe the justifications for will be better.

With all of that though - the local Apple store is still got queues (lines as they say in the US) to get in to take a look at the watch!!!! Bloody weeks after launch and pre-order and they still have them lining up outside to buy them. Don't get me wrong, not everyone buys one, but they can't make enough and they are sell, and selling VERY well. How long term? Thats the question, but at the moment its a hit.

[ZesPak]

^
One of the main problems with Apple these days, they don't have to make good stuff anymore, they just have to make stuff and it'll sell.
The new MacBook and Apple watch are prime examples, both devices made with some very questionable decisions and questionable use, but they can't make them fast enough. I'll bet you there will be over a month waiting list to get a "gold" MacBook at any point.

[DeuxCentCinq]

Bungleaio said:

I cancelled my order today. My iPhone 5 battery is really showing it's age and not lasting all that well anymore. I think having it connected to the watch via bluetooth will push it over the edge.

I will look at it again when I've got a 6s.

It's Bluetooth 4 LE (low energy) remember, so not that much of a drain. My 18-month old 5S drains maybe an extra 5-10% over the day when connected to the Watch.

[Zoon]

Bungleaio said:

I cancelled my order today. My iPhone 5 battery is really showing it's age and not lasting all that well anymore. I think having it connected to the watch via bluetooth will push it over the edge.

I will look at it again when I've got a 6s.

Replace the battery, it only takes a few minutes and costs around £7.00.
Worked wonders for mine.

[bluenosewrx]

MINE SAYING JULY DEIVERY

[Bungleaio]

I have a fitbit charge at the moment which it can connect to. I tried that and the battery was lasting 4 hours or so.

I didn't think of getting a new battery but I've cancelled now so I've lost my place in the queue. I'm off to New York in September so I will see if I can pick one up then or hold out for the next version.

[Zoon]

off_again said:

With all of that though - the local Apple store is still got queues (lines as they say in the US) to get in to take a look at the watch!!!! Bloody weeks after launch and pre-order and they still have them lining up outside to buy them. Don't get me wrong, not everyone buys one, but they can't make enough and they are sell, and selling VERY well. How long term? Thats the question, but at the moment its a hit.

Nobody is queuing up at stores to buy them because they are only for sale online at the moment. The queues are probably people just wanting to try the demo units on.

[audi321]

I meant to buy some on launch day to sell on (I normally do it with the iphones) but I thought against it as it wouldn't take off.

They're going for a huge premium now